This disclosure generally relates to social networking systems, and in particular to providing suggested content items to users in a social networking system.
Social networking systems enable users (including people, businesses, and other entities) to form connections and interact with other users. Social networking systems may also enrich the user experience by identifying, recording, and using the connections and interactions among the users to suggest actions or to provide additional content. For example, a social networking system may infer a user's interest in a particular topic based on the user's interactions with objects related to that topic. This information may also be used to suggest content to a user that is relevant to that particular user's interests.
Many social networking systems select content items for presentation to a user based on the likelihood of the user having an interest in the content items. For example, a social networking system selects content items presented to a user on a web page maintained by the social networking system (a “page”) based on the likelihood the user will have an interest in the content items. The social networking system often analyzes various factors, such as a user's history of interaction with objects on the social networking system, content item attributes, and user connections to other users, to determine content items for presentation to a viewing user. For example, a viewing user may be more interested in stories relating to a specific user connected to the viewing user than in stories relating to other uses with which the viewing user rarely interacts. This encourages a user viewing the content items (a “viewing user) to further interact with the social networking system.